Last week, I was at Queen Alexandra School when Grade 2 students were excitedly trying on donated Halloween costumes. The problem was that there weren’t enough and in enough different size to ensure that every child at this inner-city school in Vancouver would have a costume to wear.
And what that meant is that this year, like last year and many before, some of the students at this inner-city school would either go out trick-or-treating ... Read More …

Let’s say you were part of a community — perhaps you have a business there or maybe you’re raising a family, or perhaps you do both of those things in that community — and you discovered that children in the elementary school down the street, or around the block, were going into their classrooms every day without having eaten breakfast, without enough food for a proper lunch. What if they were showing up on cold ... Read More …

As noted earlier, a panel discussion was held Monday evening at the Vancouver Public Library to discuss poverty and inner-city students. This was organized by Carrie Gelson and her colleagues at Seymour elementary in the weeks after The Sun published her plea for public support for her school.
My colleague Medha staffed the event and her story can be found here. You can also find a CBC interview with Gelson prior to the event here... Read More …

A young Edmonton boy was one of the early responders to Carrie Gelson’s open letter appealing for help for her inner-city students.
He wrote: “My name is Logan and I am in Grade 2 in Edmonton. I have socks for all of the kids in your class. I hope they like them.”
Gelson was so touched by his letter that she pinned it up in her classroom and it was one of the first things ... Read More …

I got an email over the weekend from Vancouver teacher Carrie Gelson, along with a copy of a letter she wrote about the troubles in her inner-city school, where many children are poor, some are neglected and most need more than just a basic education.
“From where I sit every day, things are not okay,” wrote Gelson, a master teacher who has worked in Seymour elementary for 16 years. The letter is addressed simply ... Read More …